Abortion Doctor: I Would Leave Babies to Die Born Alive After Abortion

In a second undercover video Live Action has released in two days, another abortion clinic staffer acknowledges leaving babies to die following failed abortions. The videos show there are other abortion clinics, abortion practitioners and staff who, like Kermit Gosnell, would leave babies to die after failed abortions.

First, the pro-life group released a video showing an abortion facility staff member saying an unborn child born alive after a botched abortion should just be flushed down the toilet. In this second video, leading D.C. late-term abortion doctor Cesare Santengelo admits he would leave a baby struggling for life after a failed abortion to die.

The video is the second in a series of undercover videos, found at www.liveaction.org/inhuman, involving a number of late-term abortion clinics engaging in illegal and inhuman practices, as well as explaining in graphic terms what happens to the victims of late-term abortion.

“Hopefully we’ll get this pregnancy out intact, but it doesn’t always happen that way,” Washington, D.C. abortion doctor Cesare Santangelo tells an undercover Live Action investigator who is 24 weeks pregnant. “I try and sever the umbilical cord first, and we wait for that to stop pulsing, and this way the fetus is expired first.”

When asked by the undercover investigator what would happen if the baby were to survive the abortion, Doctor Santangelo responds:

“Technically – you know, legally we would be obligated to help it, you know, to survive. But, you know, it probably wouldn’t. It’s all in how vigorously you do things to help a fetus survive at this point. Let’s say you went into labor, the membranes ruptured, and you delivered before we got to the termination part of the procedure here, you know? Then we would do things – we would – we would not help it. We wouldn’t intubate. It would be, you know, uh, a person, a terminal person in the hospital, let’s say, that had cancer, you know? You wouldn’t do any extra procedures to help that person survive. Like ‘do not resuscitate’ orders. We would do the same things here.”

Live Action President Lila Rose called the practices “illegal and inhuman” and charged that they are a violation federal law – namely, the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act.

Rose told LifeNews: “It is clear from our investigation that Kermit Gosnell is just the tip of the iceberg. Our videos expose the truly gruesome, illegal, and inhuman practices going on inside many of America’s abortion clinics. Our investigation reveals that these inhuman practices make for just another day at the office to the doctors, nurses, counselors, and staff who engage in this abuse on a regular basis.”

The videos are part of Live Action’s six-month undercover investigation shedding light on the illegal, inhuman, and gruesome practices of numerous clinics throughout the country.

“These clinics should be shut down,” Rose said, “and the doctors and clinic staff engaging in these inhuman and illegal practices should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. It is time to stop infanticide in its tracks, and the only way to do that is to bring justice for these babies born alive but left to die.”

Rose is calling for Attorney General Eric Holder and the U.S. Attorney’s office to investigate and prosecute Dr. Santangelo, who is in violation of federal law. Rose also called on local health and law enforcement officials to similarly investigate Dr. Santangelo and put an end to his illegal and inhuman practices.

From the letter Live Action wrote to Attorney General Holder: “I do not exaggerate when I write that lives are at stake. Babies born alive from failed abortions have the same natural right to life, confirmed by the Declaration of Independence and protected by the United States Constitution, as any other human person. They must not be left to die, yet as Dr. Santangelo is caught on tape saying, “we will not help” them.”